That’s assuming there would be any reason to operate it because the deal with Russia is now over, and there are no other customers lined up to bring their unwanted plutonium to have it converted.

The project has its critics. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) called the continued funding of the MOX facility a “zombie earmark.” DOE officials are so fed up with the project that they were ready to put it on “cold-standby”—in other words, shut it down.

But backers in Congress, including Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina), made sure there was $300 million in the 2014 year-end spending bill for MOX. They even prohibited the Energy Department from using the money to put MOX in cold standby.

Aerospace Corporation’s assessment was based on $500 million per year being appropriated to the project. With the lesser number, it ends up costing more: a life-cycle cost of $114 billion and a completion date of 2100, POGO reported.

Comments

Tom Clements
2 years ago

Thanks for the blog on the MOX boondoggle. See SRS Watch update on MOX, April 29, 2015: http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srs_watch_update_on_mox_seis_inaction_nrc_lack_of_inspection_april_29_2015.pdf Tom Clements, Savannah River Site Watch,
Columbia, SC, www.srswatch.org